War Child will be honoured at tonight’s Brit Awards with the first special recognition award celebrating the charity’s partnership with the music industry.

This year the charity celebrates its 20th anniversary. Involving musicians through charity singles, albums and concerts has been a key part of its fundraising activity and the charity also runs a number of music therapy projects for children affected by war.

This week it released a ‘best of’ album with proceeds going to the charity. Artists featured on War Child 20: The best of include Radiohead, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Lily Allen. (See the trailer below)

Earlier this week the charity held its fifth annual Brit Award Concert at the O2 Shepherds Bush with Muse as the headline act (pictured).   

Brits chairman David Joseph said: “For two decades now, War Child has worked with artists to raise funds and awareness to help children whose lives have been torn apart by war. The Brits are proud to give recognition for their vital work as well as saying thank you to all the artists who have given their time, help and energy to something so important”.

War Child’s music and fundraising director Ben Knowles said: “This is fantastic news for us.  When we began in 1993, in response to the Bosnian conflict, we had one simple belief – that children are the innocent victims of war and no child should be affected by it.  Twenty years on, our belief remains the same.  Our relationship with artists and the music industry means that we’ve helped children born into some of the most violent conflicts.”

 

 

 

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